13th Anniversary Ale | Stone Brewing

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Pours a dark reddish/brown with little to no carbonation. Has a light lacing of foam around the edge of the glass, small head when first poured. When I first poured this beer a savored the aroma it smelled like a pine forest with some citrus, for hop heads like myself, there's no better aroma and it smelled incredible. The first sip immediately pounded my tongue with hops in the middle and the front and the hop bitterness continues to dance on your tongue for a very long time, it dissipates very, very slowly. There's a hint of malt in there to try and balance out the hops but I can't really say this is one of those beers that balances out equally between the malt and the hops. The hops definitely take over and what's left of your palate picks up the hint of malts. Hop heads will absolutely love this beer (I myself am one of them). I don't know of many Imperial Reds out there and this one is very interesting since all the bigger bodied reds I've ever had seemed to emphasize more malty sweetness with the hops to bring it back into check, this one is just the opposite. Mouthfeel is a medium body, very smooth, and very, very drinkable. This is one beer that can easily sneak up on you and it is also one I would hope to see Stone brew on a yearly basis. This is by far the best red ale I've ever had and it pushes the boundary of traditional red ales into the extreme category. I absolutely love this beer.

This is a red hop bomb. Pours a dark cherry/ruby color with a very nice looking head. Not as chunky as it started out to be. Thinned a bit, but good lacing.
Hops in the aroma and taste. More pine and resin than citrus. The story on the back label says little about this beer, but gives thanks to all of their customers. OK, great. What am I drinking? Oh, well. Doesnt matter. It's hops. Totally misses the mark of the noted style above.

Still, this is one dimensional. No balance at all, and just stinging hops and alcohol. Little flavor to me. It was a good buy as I like the attempt. Malt didn't have a chance.

Appearance: rich, cloudy brown with a thick (2 finger plus), tenacious head, which leaves a very nice lacing as it dissipates.

Smell: hops and more hops. Spicy, floral and raw hops. Did I mention hops?

Taste: huge hop flavor up front, but with a slow, deliberate bitterness that rolls up toward the end. As the bitterness dissipates, the hop essence returns. There is a slight caramel flavor to the underlying beer, but with the huge hops all over the place, it is kind of hard to tell.

Mouthfeel: on the heavy side of medium body. Appropriate for the style.

Drinkability: it's good, but dang: a man has limits, even with hops.

I must say, I'm not a huge hophead; I know that's practically sacrilegious coming from a denizen of the PNW. However, this is still a very tasty, if quite mega-hopped, ale.

The beer pours a dark red/brown color with a thick frothy tan head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is great! It has a really nice hop aroma as well as a solid malt nose that boasts of crystal, roasted, and bisquit malts. It appears to be quite balanced. The taste is great as well. It's extremely bitter with loads of hop character up front as well as residual bitterness in the finish. The malts are present and provide a solid base, but the hops are the dominate taste. It's got excellent bisquity notes along with a subtle roasted character. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a full bodied beer with adequate carbonation. This is a tastey Imperial red. I'm loving the hop character as well as the malt contribution.

It's about time I got this beer. Enjoy in 2009 it says, hinting that it;s hoppy. On to the beer:

Very dark red, almost on the verge of being brown or a reddish violet. Great holding head, nice thin rings of lacing. This is a very hoppy and fruity tasting beer. First you get the burst of hop resin on the palate before you get the major fruity esters. The bitterenss grows on you as you drink more of it. Alcohol is hidden well, and it goes down easy for its size. Ideal for hop maniacs. Personally, I prefer all three Bastards over this.

Very nice example of a strong ale, with a lot of hoppiness, but an underlying gingerbread base and potent alcohol all nicely integrated. A very nice beer. Pours dark brown with a reddish tint and a fairly thin head that sticks around as a ring and a swirl for the duration of the beverage. Nice blend of bitter, piney citrus rind hops and molasses and gingerbread on the nose. A bit bready, but not overly sweet. The taste is similar with a long, bitter hop finish against a base of gingerbread. Quite smooth and dangerously drinkable for the abv.

Pours dark reddish brown with a tan head. The aroma is hop forward, with a lot of piney, resinous hops as well as some alcohol. The flavor follows the aroma with piney hops and alcohol. as well as some darker malts. There is some spiciness in the flavor and it is somewhat boozy. Medium mouthfeel and carbonation. Very good beer, although I think I preferred it when it was fresh as opposed to drinking it with six months age on it.

(A)- Pours a fairly dark and cloudy brown amber color that produced a ridiculously huge fluffy tan head that is clinging to every side of the glass and is staying around for awhile too; great retention.

(S)- Tons of hop and barley amidst a lemon and lime biscuit. A light brown sugar/caramel sweetness on the finish.

(T)- Ample hop/barley up front blended with a light raisin bread with a lime/grapefruit/pineapple fruit concentration. Very respectable malt backbone that has a delicate sweetness to it. Its starting to remind me of their Arrogant Bastard combined with a barleywine, combined with a brown ale!

(M)- This is a great example of a perfectly balanced beer! There is obviously an immense hop addition that provides a big bitter and pine bite, but is smoothed out by the caramelized malts and barley-wine like profile it has. Superb balance and great carbonation level. Its actually incredibly smooth due to how meticulously balanced this is!

(D)- A great beer that demands your attention and respect while consuming it. An ample 9.5%abv is hidden well within this monster. I havent had any of Stone's Anniversary beers before this one, but I think that I need to seek them out in the future years. Its says not to cellar and enjoy before 2009 is over with, but I think I might put at least one away to see what happens in a year perhaps.

The beer pours a darkish brown color, looking very much like a standard porter. The beer has pretty decent head retention, with lots of sticky lacing all around. On the nose, you can tell right off this is going to be a hop bomb. There is a hint of malt and coffee, but the over-riding aroma is bitter citrus and hop perfume. Flavors on the palate replicate the nose, and this beer is impressively hoppy. It's very reminiscent of a DIPA, and I was told this is the hoppiest beer Stone has ever made. Whatever, this beer is hugely bitter and citrusy, with just a hint of coffee and chocolate. One thing I found interesting about this beer, is that the initial flavor I get is just a breath of sweet malt, coffee and chocolate, but then the hoppy bitterness comes on strong and drowns out everything else. As it turns out, this beer has a pretty dry finish, despite the fact that you can tell the abv. is up there a bit. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, with a long finish. Drinkability is OK, though the combination of massive hop bitterness and high alcohol make it difficult to have more then one serving.

In the glass I get a very heavily chill hazed reddish brown beer with a small yellowish head. This beer seems very subject to the chill hazing effect.

Smells strongly of both malt and hops. Strong rye scent with its characteristic faint sour scent. Earthy hop aroma, Northwestern type hopes are here, but mostly obscured by a mix of other types. Pretty much earthy with a little eucalyptus tree Funk.

Starts out thick and fairly hoppy and dry in the mouth. Strong hoppy ale with a most thick and smooth mouthfeel, something like Arrogant Bastard made in to a milkshake. Strong beer but this never gets harsh at all, like tamed Arrogant Bastard in flavor with approximately the same taste.

Mouthfeel is where this beer really excels, this compares with the best Oatmeal Stouts for smoothness in a glass.

Super easy to drink. Could be a bit more flavorful but that would probably change the smoothness of this elixir.

I thought this was a IPA/DIPA so I was surprised to see a dark beer with a deep brown with some red spots in terms of color. A rich dark tan head had great legs and left some gunk on the glass. Seeing that this ais a strong ale now, the color makes more sense. The smell was mostly citrus hop scent with some floral aroma hops as well. A nice sweet scent coming from the malt bill. Also getting some alcohol/nail polish scents. The taste is huge, but im not sure i enjoy it all that much. The hops are pleasant and highly citrusy with a caramel sweetness intertwined. This kind of reminds me of a much more drinkable Founders Devil Dancer, So i'm guessing the IBU's are up there. The feel is bitter and finishes a bit rough. The hops don't kill the palete but they do attack it. A medium feel with great carb within. With all that said I had a hell of a time finishing my pour because of the alcohol flavor hindering things a bit. These types of beers are just not my thing.

Earl Grey tea with a red clay crust. This beer's darker tones are really antagonistic to the afternoon sun; they refuse to shine even despite their gorgeously rich shade. Luckily, it's not hopelessly incompatible - against the fluorescence of artificial light a sensuous scarlet colour is revealed. Its brown eggshell-tinted head appears feathery like a down-filled pillow; if I wasn't so tempted to drink it I'd be cuddling my head right on top of it.

Just like its appearance is unreceptive to light, its aroma seems equally disobliging to the sense of smell - but in a very admirable way. From under scorched malts the stenchy, stingingly bitter, repugnantly pungent, reekingly pithy scent of hops is so potent, so fragrantly strong that it could probably wake - if not the dead - at least someone who fainted. There's no doubt in my mind that this could be just as effective as smelling salts.

Stone 13th uses more pounds of hops per barrel than any other beer the brewery's made. As hard as that may be to believe given their other releases (Ruination, Double Bastard and prior Anniversary Ales) it only took a few sips to convince me. The Chinook and dry-hop blend of Simcoe and Centennial give the beer a chewy, pithy grapefruit character and excessively piny, resinous and citrusy fruity flavouring.

The Amber and Crystal (and touch of chocolate) malts give an honorary but futile effort to balance out the hoppiness. Traces of caramel, toffee, crisp wafers and honeycomb are noted, but barely. The malts taste scorched and despite their best efforts to remain sweet, in the end fall to the pithy, resinous, choking bitterness of pungent American hops.

Even with the not-so-subtle hint of its 9.5% alcohol, Stone 13th lends itself better to big gulps and constant swigs rather than tiny sips and slow, lengthy savoring. This is a strong beer masquerading simply as a flavorful beer. The fact that this was meant to be quaffed, and easily is, is proven by the whopping mouthfuls and breakneck speed at which it is being consumed. I drink this any faster and I might just break the sound barrier!

Stone Brewing seems to nail beer styles with the precision of a calculator. Right down to the most minor detail this is exactly what a big, ballsy American Imperial Red Ale should be - it's piny, resinous and loaded with hoppy flavour. I really like the fact that Stone refuses to put all their eggs in one basket with regards to style. And although they do each one well, I think it's hard to deny they do this kind of beer - big, obnoxiously hoppy - the best.

A soft pour still nets me an almost three-finger thick, lightly browned, amber-tan colored head. The beer is a dark, amber-red color with brown notes to it that when held up to the light shows a brilliantly clear, deep ruby hue. The aroma is sticky with candied hop notes; lychee, candied orange zest, sugar coated pine and spruce tips are followed & boosted by caramelized crystal malt flavors, toasted (almost roasted even) malt and a nice cracker / biscuit grain note towards the finish. Other, more herbal hop notes lend an almost dank, hemp-oil like character and perhaps a touch of green onion / garlic chive towards the finish. After a bit I start to notice a touch of cinnamon like hop character that mixes in with the sweet citrus notes. The nose of this beer is definitely quite hoppy, though given the hop-talk from the brewer I was actually expecting this to jump out of the glass with an expressive hop character. It doesn't quite do that, though it certainly is a hop focused beer, but there is a solid, underlying malt contribution here; it is overwhelmed by the hops in the aroma, but you can tell this beer has a lot of malt richness to it as well.

Somewhat creamy textured and full in the body, the beer still has quite a bit of a prickly carbonation; it would probably be better without quite so much carbonation. There is enough hop character here that the overall beer effect seems dry. There is some residual malt sugars here, even a substantial crystal malt sweetness, it just isn't that noticeable because of all the raw hop character. The beer finishes with a lingering, bracing bitterness that really stays on the palate long after the beer has left my mouth and even has some raw, green-hop astringency. Herbal hops are apparent as the beer first hits my tongue. There is also a solid fruity-hop character here, it just clearly plays second fiddle to the herbal hop notes. Hop notes of grapefruit zest, tangerine, lychee and kumquat are joined by notes green raw hop notes (that are almost a bit vegetal at times), substantial peppery pine notes, Towards the finish, after it loses the fruit notes, the hop character get piquant with notes of menthol, pine, peppery herbs and a resinous hop character that just fills the palate. The finish has some warm, almost hot alcohol character to it that accentuates the biting hop character.

I like that the nose strikes a decent balance between citrus hop notes, more dank, herbal notes and with a subtle, but somehow substantial malt character as a backbone to the nose. This is definitely a sipping brew, with all it malt character and alcoholic strength, not to mention the aggressive hop character. Stone puts this as part of the nebulous Imperial / Double Red style of beer. To my taste it is a cross between a rich, malty and thick Barleywine and a hopped up Double IPA. This is an unbalanced hoppy beer for sure, but it still needs some balance to it; the hop character can get a bit too harsh here at times and the hot alcohol doesn't help things. Still not a bad beer, just could use a bit more finesse and perhaps just a month or two of age to mellow and better integrate the harsh notes; I'll have to get another bottle of this to do just that.

22 picked up at the COOP on Friday.. I think for about $7.. but I don't remember exactly... poured into my shaped SA glass... I could easily smell this one at arms length even with the ceiling fan moving the air around.

Wow.. the aroma is as advertised... thick nose hair coating hoppiness with a fair amount of caramel malts.. toasted biscuits come to mind.. and pithy grapefruit zest... already seems like too much of a good thing... a bunch of maltiness for sure.. but the hops blow things out of the water.

Flavor has the blast of almost tannic hoppy bitterness at the front.. gives way for a moment to a thick bodied caramel/toasty maltiness and that gets drenched in an oily hoppiness... citrus zest... white pith bitterness.. pine sap.. and chewing on evergreen needless with a punch of tangerine zest.

The body is thick... and carbonation pushes everything to the front.. hoppy burps that seem more flammable than any where near pleasant... finish just lingers for days.. sticky and oily.. wow.. I want to know how they did this one... impressive.

Unapologetic.. and no where near balanced.. but I am digging this one, but it is too brash... there is just toooo many things going on... the only reason I want another sip.. let alone another bottle is just to reaffirm the punishing beating my palate is taking..

Very dark crimson/amber color, translucent clarity, with a high creamy, tan head with excellent retention and streaks of lacing. Aroma is dry and hoppy, citrus and pine, lots of malt, very similar to a barleywine. Body has caramel and roasted malt backbone that attempts to balance out the hop assault in the finish. Flavor in body is fairly sweet and the finish has a drier pine bite. Mouthfeel is slightly thinner than expected, with sharp carbonation. Finish also has potent alcohol presence. Reminds me more of Rogue XS Red or Terrapin's Big Hoppy Monster, more than Nugget Nectar. A solid offering from Stone as usual, but something just seemed off in the balance and the alcohol presence was a little strong. A bargain compared to the Rogue Imperial but overall disappointing for Stone.

A: Poured a dark crimson with a bright clarity and a foamy 3 finger medium beige colored head. Retention was good with a splashy lacing that covered a good portion of the glass. The visible effervesce was extremely light. Overall another dark and brooding beer from stone.

S: sweet with wet pine and grapefruit, albeit much lighter then most of their other beers. A light bready caramel malting, semi-sweet in nature is well balancing and represented here as well.

T: The flavor starts out with a strong bitterness of grapefruit attacking the taste buds upon the first sip. The bitterness continues to grow even more pungent in nature with a dry flowery hopping as we hit the middle of the palate. Dry grassy notes with a strong resinous malting and pine hopping parches the tongue with an assertive dry hoppiness. The fade is lingering, long and very dry. The malting is toasted and dry, medium in body while the alcohol also cotributes to the dry warming finish. Overall a heavily hopped strong ale the leaves the tongue brutally assaulted and parched by a hefty dose of "C" hops that was nicely malted as well.

M: decent, nothing spectacular or much to note here. Medium in body, with a wonderfully dry hopped fade. The carbonation was light all around.

D: Good drinkability as well enjoyment. Hop heads will rejoice by the dry pungent hoppy nature while noobs may stumble their way through this one. Bitter dry with a lingering dry bitter hop fade that stays with you long after the swallow.